Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics

This paper seeks to use fixed effect and dynamic panel models to examine role of firm characteristics, macroeconomic variables, control of corruption and political uncertainty in explaining cash holdings of Egyptian firms over the period 2011 – 2020. We find that firm characteristics strongly expla...

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Main Authors: Mahmoud Otaify, Aly Dawood, Mohamed Farouk
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EconJournals 2022-05-01
Series:International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues
Subjects:
Online Access:https://econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/13068
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author Mahmoud Otaify
Aly Dawood
Mohamed Farouk
author_facet Mahmoud Otaify
Aly Dawood
Mohamed Farouk
author_sort Mahmoud Otaify
collection DOAJ
description This paper seeks to use fixed effect and dynamic panel models to examine role of firm characteristics, macroeconomic variables, control of corruption and political uncertainty in explaining cash holdings of Egyptian firms over the period 2011 – 2020. We find that firm characteristics strongly explain variations in corporate cash ratios and deviations from the target ratios. However, we document no considerable role of macro variables. Egyptian firms tend to hold liquid assets as cash substitutes in managing their working capital and use debt as cash substitute in financing their operations. The findings support the prediction of main corporate finance theory and support both the precautionary and transactionary motives to hold cash. As expected, Egyptian firms tend to hold more cash during periods of high political uncertainty.  After sorting according to the most influential independent variables which are tangibility and dividend yield (high and low). We find that cash holdings of the firms respond differently to both the firm specific variables and macro variables. Specifically, the high tangibility firms adjust their cash holding to the optimal level faster than the low tangibility firms while the low dividend yield firms adjust faster than the high dividend yield firms. The results of dynamic panel models indicate that Egyptian firms follow a partial adjustment policy towards the optimal cash levels, which corresponds with trade off theory.
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spelling doaj.art-cf0052df41734d108eb1c7a93a33b0962023-02-15T16:10:15ZengEconJournalsInternational Journal of Economics and Financial Issues2146-41382022-05-0112310.32479/ijefi.13068Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm CharacteristicsMahmoud Otaify0Aly Dawood1Mohamed Farouk2Faculty of International Business & Humanities, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Alexandria, Egypt.Faculty of Management, Sadat Academy for Management Sciences seconded to Faculty of Business and Economics, Heliopolis University, Cairo, Egypt.Faculty of Management, Professional Technology and Computers, Egyptian Russian University (ERU), Cairo, Egypt. This paper seeks to use fixed effect and dynamic panel models to examine role of firm characteristics, macroeconomic variables, control of corruption and political uncertainty in explaining cash holdings of Egyptian firms over the period 2011 – 2020. We find that firm characteristics strongly explain variations in corporate cash ratios and deviations from the target ratios. However, we document no considerable role of macro variables. Egyptian firms tend to hold liquid assets as cash substitutes in managing their working capital and use debt as cash substitute in financing their operations. The findings support the prediction of main corporate finance theory and support both the precautionary and transactionary motives to hold cash. As expected, Egyptian firms tend to hold more cash during periods of high political uncertainty.  After sorting according to the most influential independent variables which are tangibility and dividend yield (high and low). We find that cash holdings of the firms respond differently to both the firm specific variables and macro variables. Specifically, the high tangibility firms adjust their cash holding to the optimal level faster than the low tangibility firms while the low dividend yield firms adjust faster than the high dividend yield firms. The results of dynamic panel models indicate that Egyptian firms follow a partial adjustment policy towards the optimal cash levels, which corresponds with trade off theory. https://econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/13068Adjustment SpeedFirm CharacteristicsMacroeconomic VariablesControl of CorruptionPolitical Uncertainty
spellingShingle Mahmoud Otaify
Aly Dawood
Mohamed Farouk
Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics
International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues
Adjustment Speed
Firm Characteristics
Macroeconomic Variables
Control of Corruption
Political Uncertainty
title Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics
title_full Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics
title_fullStr Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics
title_full_unstemmed Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics
title_short Optimal Cash Ratio and Adjustment Speed Across Different Firm Characteristics
title_sort optimal cash ratio and adjustment speed across different firm characteristics
topic Adjustment Speed
Firm Characteristics
Macroeconomic Variables
Control of Corruption
Political Uncertainty
url https://econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/13068
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